Home Care Provider Step-Up Instructions?

[rested gal]

Hawkeye, please check your Private Messages...button at top right of this page.

[RedThunder94]

well if you dislike it that much then leave, i don't see any of the whining you are talking about, except yours, now run along go outside and play ball with the other kids your age,

[Guest]

You really are very entertaining

Thats the point of this forum to educate and entertain each other!
Glad to see you finally were able to understand that!

[Guest]

I wonder when Booty got the diagnosis of OSA and how severe the desats were.

[Guest]

Hey guest, can't you read. It was posted earlier. Are you jealous because mine is being treated successfully?

I can't find anywhere where you've said when you were diagnosed or what your stats were. All you've told us is you've been using your present machine for 3 years. Was that your first CPAP machine? So were you diagnosed 3 years ago? How severe were your desats?

[Guest]

ARE DESATS AND IQ RELATED???

[Stentor]

<delurk>

I'm also looking for help with the pressure settings on my machine (REMstar Auto with C-Flex).

From my sleep study, my 95% apnea-free level is 10cm. My machine eventually works up to 15cm, which wakes me up at 2am when the pressure blows the seals on my mask and holds open not only my airway but also my mouth. If I had wanted that, I would have gone for a drive and hung my head out the window. Ironically, the 15cm pressure is the only thing now standing between me and a full night's sleep. Below that, everything works as advertised.

I can enter a menu to read the therapy hours and to set the level of C-Flex, the alert tone and auto-off, and the button lights, but that's it. I don't see any options to reduce maximum pressure. I would also like to up the minimum pressure, as the current starting level of 5cm feels uncomfortably thin. I was thinking of a range more like 7cm - 13cm.

Unfortunately, it's early Sunday morning here near Sydney, and it's the Queen's Birthday long weekend, so I'm 53+ hours away from professional help, not to mention a week or two away from receiving mail from the US were I to buy a manual on eBay. I would appreciate any information anyone could offer.

I've been reading this forum for a few days, and I admire the spirit and camaraderie of the posters here. Good on you for taking responsibility for your treatment!

Cheers,
Stentor

</delurk>

[rested gal]

Hi Stentor, and welcome to the board.

Please send me a PM with your email address in it. The Private Messages button is at upper right of this page.

[bluesky]

I'm new to this site looking for helpful information and some support. Booty, what's your problem? You sound like a real degenerate to me. I'll go to some other areas of this boar looking for information that is helpful.

[Hawkeye]

A big thanks to everyone on this board who helped. I got the manual!

[NightHawkeye]

From my sleep study, my 95% apnea-free level is 10cm. My machine eventually works up to 15cm, which wakes me up at 2am when the pressure blows the seals on my mask and holds open not only my airway but also my mouth.

Stentor, I've experienced the very problem you are describing. When the leaks weren't well-controlled, the Remstar-auto went into runaway pressure increases on me. You might want to consider using fixed pressure with the full-face mask to see if that doesn't solve the problem. Nasal masks and pillows interfaces are less of an issue since the leak area with them is so much smaller.

Regards,
Bill

[Stentor]

You might want to consider using fixed pressure with the full-face mask to see if that doesn't solve the problem.

Thanks. I tried fixed pressure for a couple of weeks before buying my auto machine. Fixed pressure does solve the sleeping-in-a-wind-tunnel problem, but I don't get the same quality of rest with it as I do with auto. Three hours with auto is as good for me as five hours at fixed which is better for me than seven or more hours au natural.

I have very recently discovered, though, that a ceiling of 13cm is a comfortable trade-off.

Thanks to rested gal for some much-needed help. Is there some place we can propose you for canonization, rested gal? Patron saint of user help, perhaps?

Cheers,
Stentor

[NightHawkeye]

Stentor,

If you fixed your problem, would you please post what it was that fixed it. That way others can benefit as well. Having a machine run away with pressure is not a fun experience.

RG,

If you fixed Stentor's problem could you please post what it was that fixed it.

Thanks,
Bill

[Stentor]

If you fixed your problem, would you please post what it was that fixed it. That way others can benefit as well. Having a machine run away with pressure is not a fun experience.

No, it's not fun. I can testify to that.

What I did was, I adjusted the minimum and maximum pressures to 7cm and 13cm respectively, which is three points either side of my 95%-apnea-free level of 10cm. The pressures had been set at 5cm and 15cm respectively, which is outside the range I had discussed with my CPAP consultant after having trialled auto and fixed machines for more than a month.

Since you and I have different types of machines, I don't think how I adjusted the pressures on my machine would work for your machine.

Cheers,
Stentor

[Sleepy-in-AL]

As others have suggested, Booty obviously has thier head stuck in the sand where there isn't any oxygen. I don't deny that there are good Dr, DMEs, and other health care professionals out there. I'll even admit that many of the situations that lead us to the impression that these professionals are less intelligent are simple misunderstandings.

Although many people get good care, there are lots of factors that affect the care we get and ANYONE who believes that the ONLY driving factor governing the care we get is what is absolutely best for us needs to pull their head out of the sand or certain parts of thier anatomy, get some fresh air and analyze whats going on.

This forum has provided a wealth of valid and valuable information that was not offered during the total of about 20 minutes I've spent with my Dr and DME cobined. If it weren't for this forum, I wouldn't have known many of the questions to ask and I likely would have wound up with a 3-5 year old BiPAP S/T that I didn't need due to a "mistake" by my sleep technician than no one questioned until I asked the Dr.

If it weren't for this forum, I wouldn't be aware that acid reflux can contribute to apnea. I could go on for a while with examples, as I'm sure anyone who has been here for a while could.

Having said that, any adult who is getting the proper amount of oxygen knows that ANY advice you recieve whether it be from a forum, a friend, or a health care professional could be wrong or wrong for your particular condition. It is always a good idea to validate the information you recieve and cross check it with multiple sources. Your Dr. should be a valuable reference and you should be able to discuss things with him. He should be able to advise you on how information you have attained relates to your particular medical history. But, Drs do make mistakes and they have biases and they have contracts or incentives from specific manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies. Many DMEs have exclusive contracts or relationships with specific manufacturers.

So Booty, grow up! Glad to hear you think you are getting the best treatment. Hopefully you are, I have no reason to doubt your Dr. or anyone elses without specific knowledge. But, theres no way you can know for certain whether the particular machine, mask, medication, etc. you have been provided was provided because it was the best or becuase its what someone along the chain has some incentive to provide you. For me I'll educate myself enough to ask the questions and evaluate the responses!!!